Local News

Bishop Mac student killed in traffic accident >

Details concerning a freak accident at Warner Bridge Road were still being put together, but the Kankakee County Coroner's office reports a high school student is dead after what may have been a prank.

18-year-old Kaelynn Fay of Kankakee was the victim. She was driving a vehicle that swerved to avoid a barricade that was placed in the middle of the road. Coroner Bob Gessner said the Fay vehicle ended up in a ditch.

Fay and her passenger climbed out of the vehicle, but she was then hit by a third vehicle.

Miss Fay was pronounced dead at Riverside Medical Center. No other injury was reported.

There is no road work in the area, so why the barricade was in the roadway is questioned.

The owners of the Settlers Trail Wind Farm in Iroquois County are named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by township officials.

Sheldon Township is suing the wind farm owner, E.On Climate and Renewables North America LLC, for more than $1.8 million.

The township alleges that the company failed to adequately restore township roads used to build the 94-turbine wind farm in 2011.

The lawsuit, filed this week in Iroquois County, claims that road restoration work, which was required to be done by E.On as part of a "road upgrade and maintenance agreement," remains "deficient." The poor roads cover a five-mile radius."

A contractual agreement required E.On to repair all roads damaged during construction to their "pre-construction condition" or better.

The $1.8 million lawsuit, according to township officials, reflects the cost for having the necessary restoration work completed.

Amtrak hits pickup truck in Kankakee

A car-train collision this (Fri) morning in Kankakee. The driver of a pickup truck is believed to have gone around the crossing gates.

The truck driver survived the crash.

It happened on West Jeffrey Street at East Avenue. Witnesses told police the truck driver may have drove around the crossing gates and was hit by the northbound Amtrak. None of the 240 passengers onboard were injured.

DUI results in 8 year prison term for Bonfield man

40-year-old Williams Kibbons of Bonfield was handed am eight-year prison term for a DUI traffic accident.

Kibbons plead guilty (Wednesday). He was facing up to 12 years.

Prosecutors said Kibbons had a blood alcohol content twice the legal limit when his pickup truck drove head-on into another vehicle. That other driver was seriously injured.

Kibbons pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI after he was arrested in June 2012.

The Daily-Journal reports Kibbons also faced separate sexual abuse charges, which the state dismissed. Evidence in that case was not strong enough and prosecutors instead went after the DUI charges which carried a potentially stiffer sentence.